The first coat or 2 is linseed oil... I really like the way the gold color of the oil warms up the colors in the wood

My system of finish is a bit time consuming... the linseed oil has to dry now for a couple of weeks before I put the finish on. I use a Tung Oil finish, applied by hand, lots of layers... I use this system because we live in a place with extreme amounts of dust, and I don't have a 'clean' room... which here, would amount to a NASA type positive pressured, airlocked, filtered and used for nothing else So every layer of finish drys and is hand sanded to level the dust bits, and finally hand sanded to about 8000 grit, then buffed with a foam buffer on a hand drill... those pics in a few weeks

Next up is finish the headstock, with inlay, which I haven't decided on yet...

Well, I've had to spend all my time on mods the past two months... I just got the inlay made for the headstock, and set... it didn't have as much contrast as I thought it would, but what the hell, it's the learning curve This was my first attempt at using abalone

Thanks for the kind words! But I don't consider myself a 'master' at anything I've just been making stuff my whole life
I decided the cover plate for the small cavity needed machine screws instead of wood, just to make it a bit nicer, so here's my solution...

and here's the pickguard after cutting it out with the jig saw... man, I really need a metal blade for the band saw Using the hand saw is really a pain in the butt!

We've got company this afternoon/evening, so no more work today, but tomorrow the first coat of finish goes on!

Well, true to forever living in the learning curve, I underestimated the number of coats it would take to fill the pores, especially on the Jatoba... deep... anyway, I missed by a week, so now, just about a week before the finish is finished... pickguard came out nice